Has treasury released Sh11.2 billion free education cash to schools? The truth

Over the last few days a feature that the national ‘treasury has released Sh11.2 billion free education cash’ to schools, for this financial year, has hit the social media platforms by a storm. According to the feature (headlined; ‘Treasury Releases Sh11.2bn Free Education Cash. After Push by kuppet, Kenya Union of Post Primary Education), the cash has been released to all public secondary and primary schools.

Whereas this could have been good news to schools (specifically teachers working on BOM terms and suppliers), the plain truth is that the story is only but hot air. A little research shows that the the note has been lifted from an undated press release from the national treasury. Further, this particular presser was released in the month of October, 2015.

In fact, few weeks ago, the education ministry ordered schools to reimburse unspent funds meant for this year’s co-curricular activities.

LAST DISBURSEMENT WAS IN DECEMBER, 2019

The wait for BOM teachers and suppliers is still on as the ministry is tight lipped on the fate of part of the cash meant for the 2019/2020 financial year; that are yet to be released to schools.

The last time schools received fee capitation from the government was in December, 2019; where schools received the first tranche of the funds.

Disbursement of capitation funds is done on a ratio of 50 per cent for first term, 30 per cent and 20 per cent in second and third terms respectively, where each secondary school student receives at least Sh22,240 every year.

The government pays Sh22,244 annually for every secondary school student and Sh1,420 for each pupil in primary school. It releases 50 per cent of the capitation to schools in the first term, 30 per cent in the second term and 20 per cent in the third term.

See the below presser ,from the archives, that is doing rounds on social media;

Treasury Releases Sh11.2bn Free Education Cash. After Push by kuppet

The government has released Sh11.2 billion for the free primary and subsidised he secondary education programmes.
Sh3.2 billion of the money released yesterday would go towards free primary education while Sh8 billion would be spent on subsidised secondary education.

The whole capitation has been released to school accounts for use. The release of the funds would be a relief to public schools which have been unable to pay suppliers and non-teaching staff due to inadequate cash.
This financial year, the government allocated Sh14.5 billion to free primary education and Sh32 billion to subsidised secondary education.